It’s interesting to note that the first prophecy mentioned in the Old Testament and the first Old Testament prophecy quoted in the New Testament are both related to the birth of the Messiah:

“And the LORD God said unto the serpent… And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and HER SEED; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise HIS heel.” (Genesis 3:14-15)

“Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a VIRGIN shall be with CHILD, and shall bring forth a SON, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” (Matthew 1:22-23)

It is also interesting to note that the first Bible prophecy mentions both the sufferings (“bruise His heel”) and final triumph of the Messiah (her seed, the Messiah, “shall bruise” the head of the serpent, Satan, mankind’s greatest enemy – see Revelation 12:9).

“Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST, AND THE GLORY THAT SHOULD FOLLOW.” (1st Peter 1:11)

Let us look at the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15. The last part of the verse indicates that this “woman’s seed” refers to only one individual: “… and thou (the serpent) shalt bruise HIS heel” and not “THEIR heels”. HIS indicates this individual would be male. Christ was both God and man. His humanity was His vulnerable point – His “heel” – since His humanity could experience death. The serpent did bruise Christ’s “heel” by bringing about the betrayal, trial, crucifixion and death of Christ since the devil “worketh in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2). Christ, by His glorious resurrection, did bruise the serpent’s head because he vanquished the devil once and for all:

“Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” (Colossians 2:14-15)

If you compare the two things – 1) bruising the head which is associated with the highest part of the body and man’s intelligence and his spiritual nature as well as headship over others; 2) bruising the heel which is associated with the foot which is the lowest part of the body – we know that bruising the head is a greater blow than bruising the heel. Christ was buried a mere 3 days while the devil has been defeated close to 2000 years and his fate sealed forever. Christ vanquished the devil, who is the head of all organized evil in this world. Satan never bruised Christ’s head in the most important way – spiritually – because Christ never sinned and never fell for any of the devil’s tricks. “…the prince of this world cometh, and hath NOTHING in me.” (John 14:30)

No one can say that any child, male or female, who was born naturally prior to the Coming of Christ had ever bruised the devil’s “head” because they all perished while he still continued to operate. In fact the Bible says that all men under sin – the “natural man” of 1st Corinthians 2:14 – have “no strength” (Romans 5:6) to resist the devil. Only true believers indwelt by the Holy Spirit can resist the devil not by the flesh but by the Spirit, being submitted to God’s will and in fellowship with Him (see Ephesians 6:11; James 4:7). Now that being said, if the “woman’s seed” refers exclusively to one specific individual, the Lord Jesus Christ, then it cannot be said that the “woman’s seed” directly represents in any way Abel, Seth, Noah, Abraham and all of the other godly patriarchs of the Old Testament whether they lived before the global flood or after the global flood. None of those men ever bruised the serpent’s head. They all died and they each required a Saviour.

Now that I believe I have shown that the “woman’s seed” taken in the physical sense represents Christ only let us proceed to look at what the “woman’s seed” represents SPIRITUALLY. The Scriptures teach that each and every true born-again believer, redeemed by the blood of Christ, fore-known (loved beforehand) by God and unconditionally elected unto salvation, are part of the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ taken in the mystical sense of course. The invisible Church. Believers are said to be IN Christ (Ephesians 1:1). In no way can the woman’s seed, understood spiritually, ever refer to sinners who will end up in eternal torments. It cannot be said for example that Cain or Pharaoh were ever part of the woman’s seed understood spiritually because they were never IN Christ who is THE Woman’s Seed and THE Seed of Abraham (Galatians 3:16).

Notice that it does not say “between thy (the serpent’s) seed and HIS (Adam’s) seed”. Why not? Because Adam’s seed were all born sinners, enemies of God according to God’s perfect, absolute standard of righteousness which cannot excuse even one sin. They were all children of disobedience. Physically they all had a sin nature and were condemned to die. Christ because of the miraculous Virgin Birth brought about by the Holy Spirit inherited a human nature from Mary but did not inherit Adam’s sin nature. If Christ had inherited Adam’s sin nature then He could not have become the sinless substitute who had to die in the place of guilty, condemned sinners. There was thus no enmity between Adam’s physical descendants sold under sin and the serpent’s seed. Adam’s descendants who have not been transformed by the grace of God into children of God are the serpent’s seed. “There is none righteous, no not one.” (Romans 3:10-12) Adam’s seed represents carnal men sold under sin whereas the woman’s seed represents Christ (physically) and His elect (spiritually), who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and who are at enmity with the devil though in an imperfect way. A true believer was first part of Adam’s seed physically (the serpent’s seed) but then through the sovereign, converting work of the Holy Spirit upon his or heart became part of the “seed of the woman”, Christ, in a spiritual way but never physically of course because Christ did not have any physical descendants as some modern blasphemers (e.g. Dan Brown) falsely teach. A true believer is not part of Adam’s seed understood spiritually. He or she is now in Christ. In Adam I was a child of disobedience and was not at enmity with the devil. In Christ I am righteous in God’s eyes being clothed with Christ’s imputed righteous and having been cleansed of all my sins through His shed blood. I have the born-again, spiritual nature which gives me a will to be at enmity with the devil.

This leads me to now deal with the identity of the serpent’s seed. I will divide this section into two parts: 1) the serpent’s seed understood in a physical sense and 2) the serpent’s seed understood in a spiritual sense. First of all, contrary to certain false teachers (e.g William Branham, “Reverend” Moon), I do not believe that the serpent’s seed is to be understood in a physical sense. I do not believe that Eve had sexual relations with the serpent in its pre-curse form because the Bible does not teach this explicitly or clearly. The Book of Hebrews tells us that angels are spirits (Hebrews 1:14), meaning immaterial beings. Christ told the disciples that the resurrected saints, like the angels, will not marry (Luke 20:34-36; Matthew 22:30). Why “like the angels”? We will have resurrected, physical bodies (read 1st Corinthians chapter 15) so in that aspect we will not be like the angels. How then “like the angels”? No sexual relations between resurrected saints just as there are no sexual relations between angels. Lucifer now Satan, is an angel. He cannot to my knowledge of the Scriptures have human children. I would ask anybody to show me one single clear and unambiguous passage in all of the Bible which shows that angels can have children. The passage in Genesis 6 is a controversial passage which not all are agreed upon so it cannot be urged as an argument proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that angels can have sex with women.

“Not as CAIN, who was OF THAT WICKED ONE (SATAN), and slew his brother…” (1st John 3:12) Cain, if a physical child of the serpent, would have had PHYSICAL characteristics of the serpent. The serpent was not a man and is not said to have been created in God’s image. But we read that Cain was called a man (Genesis 4:1) not a half-man, half-serpent being. It is the same Hebrew word (Strong’s concordance reference number 376, “Ish”) used for man when speaking of Adam (Genesis 2:23), Noah (Genesis 6:9) and all future men who would marry (Genesis 2:24). Were Adam (created directly by God) and Noah (said to be perfect in his generations) serpent seed in the physical sense? The answer is no. They were called “Ish” just like Cain was. Cain was of the same exact essence as both Adam and Noah.

Here are a couple of other verses refuting the false “serpent seed” teaching: “Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we MEN (speaking generally), which are made AFTER THE SIMILITUDE OF GOD (not after the similitude of the serpent).” (James 3:9) and “And hath made of ONE BLOOD (not two bloods, human and serpent, or two races or two species or kinds) all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.” (Acts 17:26)

If the devil merely possessed the body of a creature, the pre-curse serpent in this case, and used the creature’s seed then how could Cain be the child of the devil in any physical way? The devil, an immaterial being, does not have physical seed which could impregnate a woman.

I believe the “serpent’s seed” are to be understood only in a spiritual sense and not in a physical sense. Children of the devil are opposed to children or sons of God. The apostle John mentions both “sons of God” (John 1:12-13) and children of the devil (John 8:44) in the Gospel he wrote so I would not err in using the Gospel of John to explain my point. I will take John chapter 8 to illustrate this point. In the same chapter, Jesus was speaking to Jews. In one instance, he called them “Abraham’s seed” (v. 37) and then later calls them children of the devil (v.44). Abraham is called elsewhere the “friend of God” (James 2:23). Abraham could therefore not have been “serpent seed”. How then could Christ call those Jews both Abraham’s seed and children of the devil? It would be a contradiction if He were referring strictly to physical lineage in both case. The only way to properly interpret the passage is to interpret Abraham’s seed solely in a physical sense and the “children of the devil” solely in a spiritual sense. Paul, addressing Gentile and Jewish Christians living in Rome, wrote that Abraham is the father of us all, meaning believers in this context (Romans 4:11,16). How can Abraham be the father of present-day Chinese believers, Indian believers, Danish believers, etc…? Spiritually of course. Jesus was not calling the unbelieving Jews in chapter 8 Abraham’s seed in the spiritual sense because Abraham is the father of all them that believe (Romans chapter 4) regardless of lineage. Being unbelievers those Jews who rejected Christ could not be Abraham’s SPIRITUAL seed. We are not to believe from chapter 8 that Jews are serpent’s seed physically. John, speaking of the opposite of children of the devil, that is to say the sons of God, calls them sons spiritually through faith in Christ (John 1:12-13) and through the new birth (John 3:3-5) which is wholly spiritual by nature. If the sons of God, who is an infinite Spirit (John 4:24), in John’s Gospel are to be taken spiritually then what does that imply for sons of the devil, who is himself a finite spirit?

Note : the perversion of Genesis 3:15 by Gentile sinners generations after the Tower of Babel dispersion probably led to the Pagan mythology surrounding Achilles and his heel being his weak point